Africapedia

Through a net: refugees arrive at a camp in Arua District, Northern Uganda. A UN audit reveals errors and mismanagement totalling tens of millions of dollars of refugee funds in the country. (Photo/Mark Garten).

First Uganda Was Very Nice To Refugees – Then It Stole From Them In Massive Fraud And Corruption

THE UN’s refugee agency wasted tens of millions of dollars in Uganda in 2017, overpaying for goods and services, awarding major contracts improperly, and failing to avoid fraud, corruption, and waste, according to a damning internal probe.

The audit, by the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services, found multiple areas of mismanagement that were UNHCR’s responsibility, such as a $7.9 million contract for road repairs awarded to a contractor with no experience in road construction, and questionable payments to trucking and bus companies worth $7.7 million.

It noted pervasive non-compliance with regulations on vast sums spent on water trucking and that UNHCR paid at least $10 million more VAT than it needed to.

GRAND WASTE

Tens of millions of transport-related invoices are still being disputed with contractors. The audit also found stockpiled goods, more lying idle than had been distributed in the previous 12 months, including 288,000 blankets and 50,000 wheelbarrows. In addition, 15,000 solar lamps worth $279,860 were found to have gone missing, and no proper investigation was done.

By 2017 Kampalas goodwill was seen as critical to providing a safe harbour for hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese refugees, and an aid official familiar with the situation, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issues, said UNHCR seemed desperately cautious not to upset the Uganda government.

The aid official explained that the international community had been singing Ugandas praises as a model country due to its liberal and progressive refugee-hosting policies at a time of rising anti-refugee sentiment.

Uganda “was branded globally as the example to follow”, said Julien Schopp, director of humanitarian practice at US NGO consortium InterAction. “Does that influence the oversight and dissuade UNHCR from digging a little deeper and uncovering corruption and mismanagement? Who has leverage on who?”

Major problems first emerged in February 2018. The UN alleged that Ugandan officials were diverting aid by colluding to pocket supplies issued to fake refugee identities. A threat of a freeze on donor funds led the Ugandan government to replace its head of refugee affairs and agree to a complete recount of its refugee population, managed by UNHCR.

GHOST REFUGEES

UNHCR announced in February that its Inspector General’s Office, which can refer staff for disciplinary or other measures, had opened an investigation into fuel embezzlement, one allegation of sexual exploitation and abuse, irregular tendering of water trucking, and fraud in procurement and food distribution.

But the UN’s internal audit, released a fortnight ago to the public but not previously reported, provides a wealth of new detail on UNHCRs role in mismanagement and likely fraud affecting refugee registration and services in 2017. It also offers new details on UNHCR’s relations with the Ugandan government.

Refugees fall under the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), Ruhakana Rugunda. Julius Mucunguzi, a spokesperson for the OPM, told IRIN that investigations were still ongoing, including into four employees suspended by the government. Mucunguzi declined to comment on the audit, saying, “UNHCR has got its own processes.”

A persistent challenge in the Uganda aid operations was accurately counting the number of refugees.

The audit found that from 2015-2017 UNHCR paid the government $14.6 million to set up and run a new refugee registration platform. However the IT and biometrics system couldn’t cope with the South Sudanese 2017 influx and couldn’t be fixed in time. The audit also found that UNHCR rarely had access to the data required for planning and verification.

To help restore donor confidence, refugees in Uganda were recounted and re-registered from March to October using UNHCR’s latest systems, at an additional cost of $11 million. The audit warned, however, that using two systems could cause problems in future. The re-registration process counted 24% fewer refugees than reported by the Ugandan government, a reduction from about 1.4 million to 1.154 milion (300,000 fewer).

However, the government spokesman Mucunguzi added that Uganda “has nothing to hide” and said that this year’s biometric recount helped build a much stronger system with “no gaps and loopholes.”

INAPPROPRIATE ARRANGEMENTS

The audit found a range of inappropriate arrangements between the Uganda UNHCR office and the OPM. For example, UNHCR agreed to contract three underqualified local NGOs recommended by the OPM, one of which had defrauded UNHCR before.

It also paid $2,000 a month to senior Ugandan officials who signed off on UNHCR-related paperwork and provided them cars and fuel. In addition, the OPM had not reimbursed UNHCR a previous demand for $250,000 of excessive fuel usage. UNHCR also paid $283,000 to subsidise the costs of 72 civil servants whose work contracts could not be shown to the the auditors.

The UN’s refugee agency also paid for OPM to buy a plot of land adjacent to its office, ostensibly to expand refugee handling capacity. However the price, $320,000, was more than double the governments valuation, and the OPM couldn’t produce a title deed to prove ownership. The audit found the plot is now being used for car parking.

The audit is unusual in the high number of problems it found. It has six critical recommendations, more than any other audit of the 907 the UN’s oversight office has published in the last five years. Over 770 audits passed without any critical findings.

The audit demands accountability for failures over the water trucking and over refugee registration. UNHCR declined to answer if there were any disciplinary actions yet. Its statements have so far backed its country representative, Bornwell Kantande, and emphasised the alleged failings of the Ugandan government.

Four Ugandan officials were forced to step aside in February, pending investigations, including the head of the refugee department in the OPM, Apollo Kazungu. Three others were in more junior roles. Kazungu told IRIN he faces no specific charges yet but is off duty.

UNHCRs Kantande was replaced in March 2018 by a veteran UNHCR manager, Joel Boudreau. Kantande now holds the post of Head of the UNHCR Regional Service Center for East and Horn of Africa.

UNHCR says it has “zero-tolerance” for fraud and corruption. The Uganda office, according to the audit report, has begun a wide range of reforms and tightened up procedures since the issues came to a head in early 2018.

UNHCR declined to answer a list of questions from IRIN. In an emailed statement, its spokesperson, Babar Baloch, said the organisation accepts the recommendations of the audit, adding “we acknowledge that serious shortcomings were found and have started taking action.”